The Sum Is Greater Than the Parts: Deconstructing Homemade PowerPoint Games

Homemade PowerPoint games are a low-tech alternative for using game design in classrooms. To date, much of the research examining the games has not shown an improvement in performance. This has led some to question whether the games are properly aligned with the instructional strategies researchers have used as justifications to support using them. This study examined how increasing the structure of the game design project affected student performance when compared to control groups, as well as those who created games in previous iterations of the study. In addition, we examined the effects of student performance when two of the instructional strategies (microtheme writing and question writing) were tested in isolation. Most of the comparisons showed no statistical difference in performance; however, results from the final iteration yielded significant gains when compared to the control group.     

Academic workload: the silent barrier to the implementation of technology-enhanced learning strategies in higher education

The effect of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) strategies in higher education has arguably been transformative despite the not-insignificant barriers existing in this context. Throughout the discourse very little attention has been paid to those primarily responsible for this implementation—academic teaching staff. This paper aims to highlight the impact of academic workload allocations, an often silent barrier to the uptake of TEL strategies in higher education. We will discuss the effects of academic identity and culture, preferential time allocation to associative activities, academic technological capacity, university policies and workload and funding models on the uptake, and implementation on TEL in higher education. Our aim is to highlight the risks to staff, students and institutions should these concerns not be addressed and to propose a model for utilisation by all staff responsible for implementing flexible workload models supportive of further implementation of TEL strategies across the sector.     

Employment and further study outcomes for care-experienced graduates in the UK

Higher Education - Life outcomes for people who spent time in the care of the state as children (‘care-experienced’) are known to be significantly lower, on average, than for the...     

An improvement on the transient response of tracking for the sampled-data system based on an improved PD-type iterative learning control

An improvement on the transient response of tracking for the sampled-data system based on an improved PD-type iterative learning control (ILC) is proposed in this paper. The developed analog ILC method and the high-gain property tracker design methodology are first combined to significantly reduce learning epochs and overcome the initial condition shift problem and discontinuous reference input in the traditional ILC. Besides, the proposed ILC improves the transient response and decreases the rate of weighting matrices Q$Q$ to R$R$ under the traditional linear quadratic tracker design. First, the off-line observer/Kalman filter identification (OKID) is used to determine the appropriate (low-) order system parameters and state estimator for the physical system with unknown system equation, so that the model-based PD-type ILC can be implemented for practical applications. Then, to improve the transient response and decrease the control effort, the proportional difference type (PD-type) ILC algorithm is combined with the high-gain property linear quadratic tracker (LQT) design to construct the high performance tracker for the model-based sampled-data systems. Furthermore, the discrete-time version high performance tracker design for the unknown stochastic sampled-data system via the iterative learning control method is proposed in this paper based on the Euler method and the digital redesign approach. Finally, some examples are given for illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Teaching Prospect Theory with the Deal or No Deal Game Show

Recent evidence indicates that decision makers are more sensitive to potential losses than gains. Loss aversion psychology has led behavioural economists to look beyond expected utility by developing prospect theory. We demonstrate this theory using the Deal or No Deal game show.     

Where Did All the Data Go? Internet Security for Web‐Based Assessments

The purpose of this article is to enumerate a series of security steps that might be taken by those researchers or organizations that are contemplating web-based tests and performance assessments. From a security viewpoint, much of what goes on with web-based transactions is similar to other general computer activity, but the recommendations here focus on what can be done to avoid the loss, compromising, or modification of data collected by or stored through the Internet.     

Bridging knowledge: A collective undergraduate thesis development approach

While there are various approaches to gerontological and geriatrics (and social sciences) education globally, a component commonly included in undergraduate education is a final thesis project. In Turkey, the Department of Gerontology at Akdeniz University has undertaken a unique approach to thesis development that values and draws on accessing the greater expertise and knowledge of faculty and students through joint collaborations. We offer an overview of the eleven stages of a collective thesis development approach as an alternative to the conventional way of conducting oversight of undergraduate thesis projects. With four years of experience, observed benefits of a collective thesis development approach for students include the opportunity to draw on the comradery, insights, and experience of a plurality of educators and aspiring students while developing, executing, and documenting a thesis project. Benefits to advisors/educators include profiting from the strengths in other advisors and wider exposure to current research, findings, and methodological approaches. So while there may be multifold variations in curriculum content and educational approaches, it is of great importance that educators create “spaces” that give value to and foster the pursuit of collective wisdom through joint collaborations. (188 words)     

Students’ writing ‘in transition’ from A-levels to university: how assessment drives students’ understandings,practices and discourses

The lament that ‘students can’t write’ remains loud and defiant, even after years of research pointing to the myriad factors that make students’ writing challenging, particularly when they move into university. This paper reports on a longitudinal, ethnographic study which explored students’ writing ‘in transition’, from A-levels to university in the UK, through the critical lens offered by the academic literacies conceptual framing. This paper offers critical analysis of the ways that students, teachers and institutions position writing at A-level and university, exploring the assumptions and beliefs that underpin their understandings and practices using Ivani?’s framework of discourses of writing. The analysis proposes that the centrality of assessment in the treatment of language at both levels creates an ‘assessment discourse of writing’, which originates in school, and becomes a defining and restrictive frame for students’ writing as they move into higher education. The analysis further suggests that assessment is the principal cause for the students’ challenges with adapting to the writing requirements of university. Moreover, assessment is used as a metalanguage for discussing writing at A-levels, and can become an unhelpful ‘anchor of continuance’ for students as they move into university.     

Online Schooling in the United States: A Response to Saultz and Fusarelli

In this paper, we discuss some concerns and recommendations of Saultz and Fusarelli (2017), offering nuanced and detailed views of online schooling from a different perspective. This includes addressing challenges regarding online learning such as fluctuating enrollments, financial concerns, quality assurance, and accountability. In addition, we propose recommendations related to funding, better quality data, and oversight and monitoring. We conclude with a short discussion of the need for differentiated research for specific online learning contexts.